Strange Case
|previous = The Other Shoe |next = Street Rats }} "Strange Case" is the fourth episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by David H. Goodman & Nelson Soler, and directed by Alrick Riley. It is the one hundred and fifteenth episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 16, 2016. Synopsis The Evil Queen and Hyde continue on their quest to steal Dr. Jekyll’s serum; Snow looks forward to her first day back as a school teacher; and while Emma looks forward to Hook moving in with her, Hook finds himself trying to protect Belle from Mr. Gold, who has made sure she can't leave the confines of the pirate ship. Meanwhile, back in the past, Rumplestiltskin helps Dr. Jekyll complete his serum to separate a man's personality into two – good and evil – but his help comes with a hefty price. Recap In the past In Victorian England, Dr. Jekyll is joined by his friend Mary, whose father, Dr. Lydgate, is a member of a prestigious science academy. Jekyll hopes to convince Lydgate to back his project that he created, a serum that separates personalities, only to be rejected. The experiment attracts the attention of Rumplestiltskin, who suddenly appears and helps Jekyll perfect the serum with a bit of magic. When Jekyll drinks it, he transforms into Mr. Hyde for the first time. That night at a party, Hyde, with the help of Rumplestiltskin, confronts Mary's father and threatens to expose the truth about him sleeping with his lab assistant if he doesn't grant Jekyll his membership into the academy. In the morning, Jekyll wakes up and remembers nothing but finds himself to be an academy member. Later on, Rumplestiltskin influences Jekyll to become Hyde again, this time to win over Mary, who has strong feelings for. However, she admits to Hyde that she isn't interested in him and wants a man who wants to embrace passion without getting rid of it, and the two kiss. The following morning, Jekyll and Mary are waking up in bed together and are shocked by the outcome, as Jekyll tries to convince her that he is Hyde, but Mary is upset that Jekyll tricked her and tries to run away, prompting an angry Jekyll to push Mary out of the window and to her death. Realizing what he has done, Jekyll takes the serum once more, leaving Hyde as the only possible culprit. Rumplestiltskin later deems Hyde a failed experiment because of his love for Mary, and forces him, and therefore Jekyll, into the Land of Untold Stories. In the present At the pawnshop, Mr. Gold is looking in the mirror and sees his hair as he prepares to cut it, giving him a more crew cut appearance. He is soon visited by the serum queen and Hyde, who demands a necklace. As Gold chokes Hyde, he learns that he cannot be killed, although she tells Gold that their deal to protect Belle and the unborn baby is still in effect. The news of Hyde escaping the hospital spreads, disrupting the lives of David, Mary Margaret, Emma and Hook; the latter is ready to move in with Emma. When Regina and Jekyll shows off the necklace, they discover that the serum will be vital in defeating serum queen and Hyde. With Hook having moved out of the Jolly Roger, he gave Belle a magical seashell to use as an emergency. Gold later stops by to ask Belle to offer her protection. When Belle refuses, Gold places a protection spell on the ship in order to prevent Belle from leaving and keep Hyde from entering. Later on, Regina asks Gold for help, only to discover the serum queen and Hyde have already destroyed Jekyll's lab and Jekyll has been left unconscious. However, the ambush left a splatter of the serum, prompting Gold to rip out Jekyll's heart, before he pours the serum onto his dagger, intending to use it on Hyde. As Gold leaves, he tosses Jekyll's heart back to Regina, who then sends Jekyll to the Jolly Roger to stay with Belle. David and Emma find Hyde in the woods. He overpowers them almost immediately, only to have Gold come out of nowhere and stab him in the heart with the serum-covered dagger, but that fails as well, as Hyde tells Gold that he switched serums with Jekyll earlier, then takes the Dark One's dagger and uses it to control Gold to take him to Belle. When the two appear in front of the Jolly Roger, Hyde says that there is one final twist. It turns out that that Jekyll is actually the real danger, and when his aggressive behavior starts to worry Belle, she attempts to use the seashell to contact Hook, but Jekyll breaks it. Her attempt to escape is prevented by the protection spell, and all Gold and Hyde can do is look on. Hook arrives just in time to save Belle by not only killing Jekyll, but also killing Hyde. Realizing that the same thing can happen to her and the serum queen, Regina ask Emma to "do what is necessary" to stop the serum queen. An angry Belle confronts Gold about his deal with Hyde. He reveals that, back when she was a servant in his castle, he was worried about the feelings he had for her. Gold sought out Jekyll to see if his serum could rid people of "weakness," but when his experiment failed, he angrily banished Hyde to the Land of Untold Stories. Belle is still distrustful of Gold, but he insists she will need him to protect their child, claiming that "necessity" will make her love him once again. Back at Storybrooke Elementary School, Mary Margaret resumes her role as teacher, and introduces her new assistant Shirin to the class. Realizing that the students are struggling, Shirin suggests that Mary Margaret embrace her past to inspire them. Taking a cue from Isaac Newton, Mary Margaret uses her experience as an archer and the students are in awe, winning her confidence with them. At the end of the day, Shirin later up with the Oracle and the two discuss plans to search for Aladdin, as Shirin is revealed to be Jasmine. Cast Starring *Ginnifer Goodwin as Mary Margaret Blanchard *Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan *Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills/Evil Queen (Serum) *Josh Dallas as David Nolan *Emilie de Ravin as Belle *Colin O'Donoghue as Hook *Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills *Rebecca Mader *Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold Guest Starring *Lee Arenberg as Leroy *Jonny Coyne as Dr. Lydgate *Karen David as Shirin *Hank Harris as Doctor Jekyll *Sam Witwer as Mister Hyde *Elizabeth Blackmore as Mary *Olivia Steele Falconer as Violet Co-Starring *David Avalon as Doc *Reilly Jacob as Tom Sawyer *Jordyn Ashley Olson as Oracle Uncredited *Unknown baby as Prince Neal Trivia |-|Production Notes= Title *The title card features Victorian England's Big Ben.File:604Title.png **The same title card was used for the Season Two episode "Second Star to the Right",File:221Title.png which features London's Big Ben. *The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on August 8, 2016. *The episode's title is a reference to the story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Production Notes *The reason why Mr. Gold cuts his hair in this episode is that Robert Carlyle cut his hair short for his role as Franco Begbie in the movie T2 Trainspotting. For the first episodes of Season Six, he wore a wig.Steve Pearlman on the Season Six Blu-ray/DVD Audio Commentary for "The Other Shoe" *The computer generated set for Dr. Lydgate's loungeFile:604EnteringLounge.png is recycled from the CGI model created for the interior of the Frankenstein Manor in the Season Two episode "In the Name of the Brother": The design of the windows, the fireplace, the doors and the bookshelves is exactly the same.File:212IBroughtHimBack.png File:212LetMeSeeYou.png The same model was used for the Darling House drawing room in the Season Two episode "Second Star to the Right":File:221WendyArrives.png The wall panels by the windows, the windows themselves, even the curtains, all have the same design, but the checkered window panes in the Frankenstein Manor were replaced with frosted window panes. |-|Episode Connections= Event Chronology *The Victorian England flashbacks take place decades'Tweet by Adam Horowitz about the Season Five episode "The Broken Kingdom":' before Alice is released from Bethlem Asylum in "Down the Rabbit Hole". **This story also takes place after Belle becomes Rumplestiltskin's maid in "Skin Deep" and before Regina tells him Belle has committed suicide in the same episode. *The Storybrooke events take place after "The Other Shoe" and before "Street Rats". Episode Connections *The Evil Queen and Mr. Hyde first teamed up in "The Other Shoe". *The Evil Queen mentions how Regina failed to kill her, an event that took place in "An Untold Story". *Belle begins living on the Jolly Roger in "A Bitter Draught". *Emma asked Hook to move in with her in "The Other Shoe". *Mary Margaret decided to go back to teaching in "The Other Shoe". *Dr. Jekyll began working on recreating serum in "The Savior". *Mr. Hyde was locked up in the psychiatric ward in "The Savior", and he escaped from his cell in "The Other Shoe". *Further events about Dr. Lydgate's life are explored in the spinoff series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. *The last time Rumplestiltskin convinced a doctor to make a deal with him was during "The Doctor". *Belle claims the only person she and her unborn child need protection from is Mr. Gold. Her distrust in him is because of the Dream World events seen in "The Savior". *David mentions how he hated Hook the first time he met him, referring to events from "Tiny". *David suggests to Emma that she could make pancakes for Hook, which she does in "Where Bluebirds Fly". *Leroy mentions that he hatched from an egg, an event that took place in "Dreamy". *Doc yells "It's the Queen!", just like he did in "Pilot". *Shirin alludes to her past as a princess, which is explored in "Street Rats". *While discussing school lessons with Shirin, Mary Margaret asks the new teacher if she's ever built a birdhouse; a reference to "Pilot" and "Welcome to Storybrooke", where Mary Margaret was building birdhouses with her students. *While Emma was the Dark One, she asked Regina to kill her if she ever went too far. This promise was made in "The Dark Swan". *What happens to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde after they are banished to the Land of Untold Stories is covered during "Only You" and "An Untold Story". *Mr. Gold admits that he fell in love with Belle during "Skin Deep". *Mary Margaret mentions how she could never get behind the tradition of accepting apples from her students due to personal reasons. This is first alluded to in "Pilot" when one of her students instead gives her a pear.File:101WhyThankYou.png The reason why Mary Margaret does not like apples is explained in "An Apple Red as Blood". |-|Cultural References= Disney *Belle serves Dr. Jekyll tea, a reference to the scene where the living china bring Belle some tea in the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. The teapot and the tea cup sitting on the trayFile:604WhateverHappened.png File:604WouldBeMine.png are a reference to Chip and Mrs. Potts. ''Lost'' *In the title card, the time on the Big Ben is 8:15,File:604Title.png a reference to Oceanic Flight 815 from Lost. Fairytales and Folklore *This episode is rendition of the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story with the birth of Mr. Hyde by Dr. Jekyll. *This episode features the ugly duckling from the titular fairytale, the evil queen from the "Snow White" fairytale, Rumplestiltskin from the "Rumplestiltskin" fairytale, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, the princess from the "Aladdin" story, and Hank Morgan's daughter from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. *The boy wearing a straw hat in Mary Margaret's physics class is Tom Sawyer from Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. *Jasmine's alias, Shirin, is the name of another female character from One Thousand and One Nights, who appears in a story on the three hundred and ninety-first night called "Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman". The character is based on a real seventh century Persian queen who became an important heroine in Persian literature after her death. *Rumplestiltskin's play-on-words with Hyde/hide is a reference to the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story, where the protagonist, Mr. Utterson, thinks to himself, "If he be Mr. Hyde, I'll be Mr. Seek". *Mary Margaret mentions how she could never get behind the tradition of accepting apples from her students due to personal reasons, a reference to the "Snow White" fairytale, where Snow White is poisoned with an apple. Popular Culture *This episode features Mary from Valerie Martin's novel Mary Reilly. *The tune playing at Dr. Lydgate's party is "String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor: Andante" by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert. *''The Swing'' (ca. 1767), a famous oil painting by the French painter and printmaker Jean-Honoré Fragonard, is hanging on the left side of the windows in Dr. Lydgate's lounge. It can be found in the Wallace Collection in London. **A cropped version of The Embarkation for Cythera, a painting by the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau, is hanging on the wall in Dr. Lydgate's lounge.File:604HydeLooksAround.png It was created in 1717 and is now in the Louvre museum in Paris. *There is an illustration of Isaac Newton on the cover of the book that Shirin carries when Mary Margaret bumps into her.File:604ThinkImLost.png |-|Set Notes= Props Notes *One of Mary Margaret's physics testFile:604ExamPaper.png is based on a science worksheet from the website of the charity organization Great Schools. Even the illustration is the same. **Some of the questions on the other testFile:604ExamPaper2.png are adapted from the Microsoft Word document "Identifying Newton's Laws" from the website Mrs. Mikula, which is run by a physics teacher. Set Dressing *When David is making Emma breakfast, the label on the bottle of orange juice says Andana;File:604RomanianPowerLifter.png File:604EnjoyYourBreakfast.png a Cebuano word for "floor, storey". It is the same prop that was used for the orange juice that Zelena served Mary Margaret in the Season Three episode "Quiet Minds".File:315GoIntoLabor.png **The container is a bottle of Simply Orange Juice; notice the shape and the green lid. The labels have been replaced for the show, although they have the same shape and placement as the ones on the original bottle. *The bottle of breakfast syrup sitting on Emma's breakfast tableFile:604EnjoyYourBreakfast.png is the same prop that was sitting on Emma and Henry's breakfast table in their New York apartment in the Season Three episode "Going Home".File:311ServingBreakfast.png *''Under the Dock Leaves: An Autumnal Evening Dream, an 1878 watercolor painting by the nineteenth century British illustrator Richard Doyle, is hanging on the wall in the foyer of Dr. Lydgate's home.File:604Foyer.png Doyle was the uncle of Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The painting is currently in the possession of British Museum. *The Martyrdom of St Agatha'' (ca 1756), a painting by the Italian painter and printmaker Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, is hanging on the right hand side of the windows in Dr. Lydgate's lounge. Costume Notes *Emma is wearingFile:604NotGonnaChange.png a Joie 'Katrine' Silk and Cotton Blouse . *During his conversation with Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Lydgate is wearing a badge with the motif of the Vitruvian Man.File:604MoreNoble.png It was drawn by Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci around 1490 and is based on the correlations of the ideal human body proportions. The design is also used as a symbol for science, art and medicine. *Belle is wearingFile:604CantGetYouAnything.png a Joie 'Foxley' silk peasant dress . |-|Other Notes= Filming Locations *The Prospect Point Picnic area in Vancouver's Stanley Park doubles as the Storybrooke Wilderness Park for this episode. International Titles Videos 6x04 - Strange Case - Promo 6x04 - Strange Case - Sneak Peek 1 6x04 - Strange Case - Sneak Peek 2 References }} ---- it:Episodio 6x04 nl:Strange Case fr:6x04 ru:Странная история